22/08/2026
# # WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN CHEAPNESS
In our country, obeying the law is sometimes considered naïve, while breaking the rules is seen as being “clever” or “street-smart.”
Is there a minimum wage?
**“I’ll work for less than that.”**
Is there an established minimum fee for the profession?
**“Oh, come on. We don’t want the customer to go elsewhere.”**
Do social security contributions have to be paid?
**“Let my insurance contributions be underreported, as long as I have a job.”**
Food, transportation, overtime, occupational safety, humane working conditions?
**“I can do without those. As long as I don’t lose my job.”**
This is where we also need to say something clearly to employees:
**Do not mistake giving up your own rights for self-sacrifice.**
Because an employee is not merely the salary they receive.
Every person has the right to work in a safe environment, to be treated with dignity, not to be humiliated, not to be subjected to psychological pressure or mobbing, to have reasonable working conditions, to have the rest and time off they are entitled to, and to receive fair compensation for their labor.
Food is not merely a matter of “filling your stomach.” The quality of what is provided to employees is part of the workplace culture and of the value placed on employees.
Occupational safety is not a “favor” that an employer provides if they feel like it.
Nor is working in an environment that respects human dignity a luxury.
These are the natural consequences of treating employees as human beings.
Of course, not every business has the same resources, operates in the same sector, or has the same working conditions. Not every workplace can be expected to offer the comfort of a five-star hotel.
But this is not about demanding luxury.
It is about refusing to accept the deliberate lowering of reasonable standards for living and working with human dignity.
**“I don’t care.”**
**“Bad food is fine with me.”**
**“It’s okay if they don’t take occupational safety measures.”**
**“They can yell at me.”**
**“Even if they humiliate me, I won’t say anything.”**
**“Let’s not record the overtime.”**
**“Let my insurance contributions be underreported.”**
**“There doesn’t need to be a transportation allowance.”**
**“There is psychological pressure at work, but I can put up with it.”**
**“I’ll work for less than the minimum professional fee.”**
The sum of all these things is not merely one person accepting poor conditions.
Over time, such behavior can also drag down standards across the market.
Today, one person says:
**“I’m willing to accept this too.”**
Tomorrow, another employer says:
**“Look, other people are working under these conditions.”**
Then the exception becomes normalized.
And what becomes normalized eventually becomes the standard.
And in the end, everyone loses.
The more you lower your own wages, insurance contributions, and working conditions, the easier you make it for others to accept the same poor conditions.
---
# BUT UNFAIR COMPETITION DOES NOT EXIST ONLY ON THE EMPLOYEE SIDE
There is an even bigger problem on the side of employers and companies:
**Companies that try to get ahead of their competitors by paying bribes.**
If a company wins a tender not because it offers better quality, better service, or a more favorable and realistic bid, but because it paid a bribe, that is not success.
**That is unfair competition.**
An honest company:
* pays its taxes,
* pays its social security contributions,
* gives its employees what they are entitled to,
* pays the costs required for occupational safety,
* and reflects its real costs in its bid.
The other company, meanwhile, either reduces its costs by avoiding these obligations or, even worse, tries to manipulate the outcome of the tender in its favor by paying a bribe.
Then the honest company asks:
**“How am I supposed to compete with this price?”**
It cannot.
Because this is no longer economic competition.
This is a contest between someone who follows the rules and someone who tries to buy their way around them.
A company that wins a tender by paying a bribe is not a “smart company.”
**It is a company that has purchased an unfair advantage.**
And this does not harm only other companies.
It harms public resources.
It harms taxpayers.
It harms honest businesses.
It harms employees.
And most importantly, it damages society’s sense of justice.
Because over time, people begin to think:
**“Why should I bother working honestly? The people who don’t follow the rules win anyway.”**
**That is the real danger.**
---
# THEN WE ALL ASK TOGETHER:
**“Why are wages so low?”**
**“Why are working conditions so poor?”**
**“Why can’t decent companies survive?”**
**“Why are people unhappy at work?”**
**“Why can’t young people feel confident about the future?”**
**“Why is there so little trust in public tenders?”**
Perhaps the answer is not that complicated.
Because on one side there is an employee saying:
**“I’ll work for less.”**
On the other side there is an employer saying:
**“I’ll employ people for less.”**
And somewhere else there is a company asking:
**“How can I get ahead of my competitor unfairly?”**
And in the end, we are all left wondering:
**“Why are things like this in our country?”**
---
A free market is not a market without rules.
Competition is competition only when the same rules apply to everyone.
If one company operates while respecting its employees’ rights, while another reduces its costs by exploiting its employees;
If one company pays all its taxes and contributions, while another avoids them;
If one company enters a tender honestly, while another gets ahead of its competitor through bribery;
**there is no fair competition.**
And employees also need to understand this:
Everything you say **“I’m willing to accept”** may not remain merely your personal matter.
The more you lower your own wages, insurance contributions, and working conditions, the easier you make it for others to accept the same poor conditions.
That is why the issue is not simply about earning more money.
The issue is making sure that work does not fall below a standard that preserves human dignity.
Let us also ask the employer:
Not,
**“How cheaply can I make use of my employee?”**
but,
**“What is the true value of my employee’s labor?”**
Let us ask the company:
Not,
**“How can I beat my competitor?”**
but,
**“How can I become better than my competitor?”**
And let us ask the company that won the tender:
**“Did you really win this tender on merit?”**
Because a country’s true competitiveness does not lie in its ability to make its people work for the lowest possible wages or in its ability to secure tenders through the most cunning methods.
It lies in ensuring that honest workers and honest businesses are not crushed by those who break the rules.
Otherwise, we will all become very successful:
By working below the minimum wage...
By saying, **“Let my insurance contributions be underreported”**...
By not receiving the overtime pay we are entitled to...
By accepting inhumane working conditions...
By compromising on occupational safety...
By remaining silent in the face of mobbing and humiliation...
By accepting work below the minimum professional fee...
By evading taxes and social security contributions...
And by paying bribes to get ahead of our competitors...
Then we will all ask together:
**“Why are things like this in our country?”**
Perhaps the answer is very simple:
We have started to regard breaking the rules as a skill, unfair advantage as success, working for less as self-sacrifice, and demanding our rights as something shameful.
Whereas true success is:
**being able to win without trampling on someone else’s rights.**
Because money earned by trampling on the rights of others is not a certificate of success;
**it is a receipt for unfair competition.**
